On today's agenda, Way more words than I'm comfortable repeating. Or rather more than Izuku is comfortable repeating.
Let's see just how well I can write this chapter…
I know my tenses are all over the place, past tense, present tense, and whatnot so please bear with me.
The reason I say that is because Izuku has a bit of a flashback, even if it's reduced in length from what it could be. He was gone for a week after all, and that week's content will be reduced to a single conversation in a day.
Also, don't mind all the random names placed within the flashback. They likely won't ever appear.
Perhaps you readers can leave a comment and tell me how I'm doing with these. Lord knows I need the feedback.
Without further ado, here's the chapter!
Enjoy~
Chapter 8: Run from the Past
"Thanks for agreeing to this." spiky red hair was jostled as his classmate bowed steeply.
Izuku didn't know what to expect when he approached Kirishima and Ashido. "Uhh… No problem? You said you wanted to talk, so… Here I am."
He leaned on the table behind him. "So… What did you two want to talk about?"
His classmate looked up at him, before turning to his pink-themed friend and back at him.
"There's no easy way to ask this, so I guess it's better to rip off the bandaid." Kirishima pauses for a moment before taking a deep breath and looking Izuku dead in the eyes. "Were you involved in the kidnapping disaster near Shizuoka last month?"
Any pondering of what they were going to ask quickly left him as Izuku's thoughts froze.
He had wanted to leave that incident behind, out of sight, out of mind. Though that was only wishful thinking from him. With a sigh, he responds.
"... And if I say that I was?"
"Then I owe you, big time."
Izuku wasn't expecting that response. "What are you talking about…?"
Ashido cut through his confusion in a moment. "You saved his sister during that tragedy."
Oh. So that was what it was.
"Yeah! I wanted to thank you for saving my sister. That and… well I don't know if I can ask you this, since you were there, but I wanted to ask you what happened. Any time I ask my sister, she clams up, and the police don't know much either, even with Endeavor's entire agency on the case." he watched as Kirishima paced restlessly.
While it was true that Endeavor was finding more of the kidnapped victims, there was little to no information other than the states of the victims. Whoever orchestrated the entire event was still hidden in the shadows.
"So if you could tell me something about what my sister went through, anything at all, I'll be very grateful" They returned back to where they started.
Izuku was in a conundrum. On the one hand, he wanted to help if he could, but on the other, he didn't want to relive the memories of that dank and decrepit, room.
"It doesn't help that nobody knows who planned the whole thing. For all we know, the mastermind could probably strike again. So please, can you tell us what to look out for at least?"
She chimed in.
His brows furled as he contemplated his next action. With a sigh, Izuku decided to bite the bullet. "I can tell you what happened… or at least what I know. I don't know if it will help you though."
"Anything helps man, anything at all."
Sighing once more, Izuku pulled out a seat. "You two may want to sit down, this is a bit of a long story…"
It was a regular night after Izuku had finished training at the beach. He had gotten into bed a few hours after showering the grime off. He wasn't looking forward to school the next day, seeing as Kaachan would likely torment him for the entirety once again for even daring to enroll in UA.
Little did he know that the next day at Aldera would never arrive, as some time through the night, Izuku was jolted awake by the feeling of a damp cloth with an overwhelming odor being pressed to his face. He tried struggling against his assailant, kicking and trying to force the arms away before he succumbed to the chemical.
When next he woke up it was to the sound of an engine roaring. He was covered in a rough bag, and pressed against several other- what he could only assume was- people, likely in the same state as him. Several times people had tried to undo their bindings and free themselves, only to be met with a harsh foot to the gut.
Eventually, Izuku lost track of the time while they were in the car, piled together like sardines in a can. By the time the car stopped, they must have been on the road for almost three hours before they were ushered out of the trunk and bodily carried into a room.
They weren't the first in the room either. As more people were moved into the room, they were untied by their original occupants, one by one.
He sat anxiously as he waited for the dizziness to subside. His anxiety spiked however when he saw his mom emerge from one of the burlap sacks. He was glad that she was still alive, yet also fearful that the both of them were trapped in this situation. The both of them almost had panic attacks, if not for the purple-haired teen who forcibly calmed him with his brainwashing quirk.
Shinsou- he said that was his name when everyone was introducing themselves- told him the gist of what happened while they were being kept. Every day, at the crack of dawn they'd feed the abductees, then pull them into a room on the upper floor and start experimenting on them. Majority of the time they'd be strapped to a table while people in lab coats would inject various substances into their arms.
Sometimes the needles made him feel like his body was burning, other times he couldn't even feel the table, or the clamps holding him to it. No matter how much he struggled in the restraints, or even when they hit him for struggling, he couldn't feel a thing, only for the feeling of touch to return to his body hours later.
Let alone the fact that it trying to plan an escape of any kind in that condition was nearly impossible. It took nearly a week for them to actually break out, and a third of the time was spent trying to recover from whatever experiments they were trying to accomplish, or trying to ignore the hunger enough to rest.
He was glad that they were able to piece together any semblance of an escape plan. Haruto would find a way out with his radar quirk, while Akira tried to listen for the best time to escape and Kasumi would lead everyone out with a trail of smoke. At that point, anyone with a quirk that had some sort of physical effect, no matter how small it was, helped protect the elderly and children on the way out. Izuku would follow behind them, if only because he was the most physically fit out of all of them.
The plan, for the most part, managed to work. They'd managed to knock out the guard at the door and jam the lock of the door that led upstairs. That bought them precious time to get everyone out.
The few minutes of peace were enough to lead all of them out, if only barely. The constant yelling, accompanied by the sounds of boots slamming on the door unnerved all of them. The worst was when the door itself broke off its hinge, as one of their goons had decided to ram it down with his own body weight.
With most of the captives out, he rushed at the man to stop him. He was the most fit of all the captives, and he had actively been training for the past eight months after all. His fist slammed into the grunt's face, accompanied by an agonizing sensation engulfing his arm, and his consciousness left him.
That was the last thing he remembered before waking up in the hospital, after hearing that part of the building exploded, and the stairwell had collapsed.
It was only later that he found out why they were kidnapped while talking to the on-case detective. They were targeting anyone who seemed easy enough to kidnap or those who they thought wouldn't be missed. That thought left a vague feeling of dread in Izuku.
"And that's basically everything that's happened until now. The detective told me he'd keep me updated on anything that Endeavor finds… but I'm not keeping my hopes up."
He watched their green-themed classmate as he finished telling his story. Eijirou would need a long time to process that and its implications. No amount of questions he could ask yet could settle the noise filling his head.
The thought of his little sister strapped to those very same tables, injected with who-knows-what and subjected to the agony which Midoriya described. It revolted him, made him sick to his stomach as his blood boiled in unbridled rage for her suffering.
"Thats… wow…"
He groaned, packing away Midoriya's recollection before turning to answer, ".. Thanks for telling us this, man…"
"Poor Emi…" glancing to his right, Mina looked as downtrodden as he felt. It seemed like they both needed time to absorb all of what they'd been told.
It was probably time for them to leave. Given the uncomfortable look Midoriya was giving, they'd definitely overstepped their bounds.
"Kirishima-san, Ashido-san. Can we please not talk about this? It's… a sore topic, for everyone involved…"
Turning back to Midoriya, he could see him scratching his head.
"Alright man."
"Mhm, our lips are sealed."
"And thanks for telling us this, man. We'll… uh... We'll get out of your hair now."
It took a few moments before the pair left the room, mostly so that he could stuff everything into his bag. Mina had, thankfully, had the foresight to pack all her notes neatly into her bag before talking with Midoriya, so if his copy of the syllabus was ruined, he could just ask her.
Closing the door behind Mina, Eijirou looked back into the classroom. Midoriya had moved back to his desk and was packing his bag, but he seemed… burdened. He looked as though he was carrying an immense weight on his shoulders.
As the duo walked to the station in uncharacteristic silence, they couldn't help but cycle their classmate's story through their heads.
Eijirou felt like he'd failed, collapsing beside Mina on the seat of an empty train car. He felt so defeated that he didn't notice Mina leaning on him. At least, not until one of her horns poked his neck.
"... Mina?"
"Kiri?" he still wasn't used to hearing that nickname, even though she'd been calling him that since winter.
"Uh- no it's just… your horns are poking me…
"Oh… sorry…" she shifted slightly, still leaning on him, until he no longer felt the horn poking him. "Will Emi… will she be ok?"
His breathing hitched. He didn't know. Emiya froze up whenever he or their parents brought her to the therapist, and the weight of the incident clearly hung over Midoriya like a storming cloud, from what he saw of their conversation earlier.
"I hope so..." he hesitated, taking a moment to carefully choose his words, "I think... I think that what she needs the most now is time."
Mina hummed, and they settled into a near-comforting silence. He felt her hand snake its way into his as they watched buildings pass by.
The next day at UA quickly came to be, and thankfully for Izuku, Kirishima-san and Ashido-san had kept their promise to not talk about the incident, even if the conversation left an awkward tension between him and the pair.
Any time he caught their glance during class, they'd wave sheepishly. It wasn't like he was overly talkative during the classes, but he wasn't as close to his classmates as he probably should have been. At most, he could probably say that he and Iida-san were friends, though the bespectacled teen seemed a lot closer to Uraraka-san and Asui-san.
At least the classes seemed relatively fun to him. Their teachers were all Pro Heroes after all, how could Izuku not be enthusiastic? (Sure, he had to physically restrain himself from approaching them and asking for autographs, but could you blame him?) Classes seemed relatively easy too. He likely didn't have to worry much about his grades, especially English, mostly since he could speak it fluently. His dad had taught him a lot when he moved to America for his mission.
Inevitably, the lunch bell rang, and classes slowly drifted toward the cafeteria. Izuku was no exception, as he lined up behind the queue of people waiting for food.
Leaving the queue with the day's special, a beef stew straight from one of Lunch Rush's best cookbooks, he was sure his dad would be jealous of that, he started looking for a table.
Or at least he was going to until he felt someone tapping his shoulder.
Kodai-san had appeared behind him, flanked by a pale girl and… floating lunch trays? Each tray was enveloped with a ghostly purple glow as it carried their lunches.
"Um…"
"... Lunch." that was the only word that responded to his confusion.
He glanced back to the pale girl for a moment, still visibly confused.
"I'll introduce myself once we sit down. For now, how about we find a table before all the empty ones are taken." she had a point. When Izuku looked around, he saw that most of the big tables were taken up already.
Thankfully, they did manage to find a table, near the exit to the cafeteria. On the way, Izuku spotted some of his classmates gathering at tables too. It seemed as if the cliques were forming.
Sliding their food onto the table, or at least Izuku would have tried to, had his tray not been picked up with telekinesis, the three sat down as the trays slid in front of their owners.
"Thank you for coming along despite not knowing me, Midoriya-kun." Izuku almost jumped when he heard his name called. "I know it must be a surprise to see a relative stranger appear and join you for lunch. My name is Reiko Yanagi. My grandfather is the doctor that looked after you these past months."
Ah. Right, He had heard the good doctor mention his granddaughter on numerous occasions.
"I'm Izuku Midoriya… but I guess you already knew that because Kodai-san told you… It's nice to meet you."
"Sorry if me inviting her was unexpected… we kinda just… clicked. Like what happened at the mall." Kodai-san chimed in.
"Oh? What's this about a mall?"
"Uhh… Before the exam, Kodai-san got lost looking for an arcade…" he remembered the day well. It'd been the first time he'd gone to an arcade and actually had fun, instead of being humiliated by Kaachan and his friends.
"Sounds like there's a story behind that." she looked curiously between him and Kodai-san as if urging them to continue.
"We broke the dance pad"
"What that-" Izuku almost dropped his chopsticks because of the sudden shift of conversation. His face heated up slightly upon remembering his accident. "I mean… yeah that happened… I didn't think it'd break though… Oh god, I wonder if there was any trouble because we broke it"
The three of them continued to chat back and forth over their meals, of the arcade experience, and how they kept competing, and about Izuku's curse, and how he was almost always late for the train. There was also a little talk about the morning earlier, where Kodai had to use her quirk to squeeze between the doors. Izuku was surprised to see her shrinking. He had known that size-changing quirks were rather common, but the majority of those were Gigantification, much like Mt. Lady's.
"Is Mt. Lady a good example though? It feels like she's just using her quirk to help chase clout like her debut, and compared to that, size-shifting like my own quirk feels a lot more useful, because it can affect items and goes both ways."
"Yeah, your quirk's pretty versatile, Kodai-chan. Must be handy to be able to shrink all your bags and stuff them into your pocket." Yanagi leaned forward, pushing her tray further to make room for her arms.
"Speaking of versatile… Yanagi-san, Your quirk is some kind of Telekinesis, right?" Izuku pulled his phone out and opened the notepad app. He'd add entries for Kodai-san and Yanagi-san into his notebooks later.
"Yeah, something like that. My quirk is called Poltergheist. I can pick up objects within a large range of myself and control them Telekinetically. I'm good at handling large numbers of objects, though I struggle with anything heavier than a person."
"That sounds super useful! You could use your quirk to take down lots of-"
*Brriiiinng*
Unfortunately, his sentence was cut short by the ringing of the bell. Lunch had drawn to a close, and none of them felt finished with their discussions.
"Maybe we should leave it until next time. Your class has Heroics Fundamentals first after all. Oh- and don't worry about the trays." Yanagi waved her hand, and all three trays were neatly stacked upon each other. "I'll handle these. You'd best not keep the heroics teacher waiting."
"I'll text you later for details" Kodai-san waved, while moving next to their silver-haired companion.
"Uh- Right! I'll talk to you two later! Have a nice day!" Izuku couldn't deny that he was excited for the first hero course, as he darted through the hallway, vaguely hearing a faint, 'No running in the halls!' from behind him.
The case to the costume opened slowly as Izuku undid its locks. It would be a lie to say that he wasn't anxious. He was eager to see how his costume turned out after all.
It still greatly resembled the original design that he'd made up long ago, with a green body covered in white lines, but now with his dad's advice, it had a lot more trinkets attached to it. The most notable additions were the metallic gauntlets, leg guards, and chest plate, all in the same shiny white that adorned his jumpsuit. The more flexible areas of his armaments were black though, likely carbon fiber if he had to guess.
After donning the jumpsuit and his shoes, he took out one of the gauntlets from his case. He could hear the others' awe and amazement at each of their own costumes, so it sounded like they were impressed with how they turned out. Izuku hoped he could say the same. Sliding the gauntlet on over his arm, and tightening the straps hidden on the undersides, he experimentally opened and closed his hand.
The black material was durable, yet surprisingly flexible enough to be unnoticeable, and the plating of the gloves was light but strong.
Sliding on the rest of the armaments, Izuku looked back into the case to see… an odd metal ring, with no mask in sight. Picking it up, Izuku twisted it experimentally, nearly jumping in shock as the ring snapped close like a bear trap before sliding plates quickly shifted into the shape of a helmet.
It bore a shocking resemblance to his father's helmet now that he looked at it. Design-wise, the front of it still looked like teeth, though the design was rather plain. At least it still had the fin-like protrusions like All Might's hair that he originally wanted. They might also have been functional if the wire he spotted was any indication.
If it was based on the Vulcan's helmet, that meant that the buttons would be on the left side of it, hidden just behind where the ear would be. Giving it an experimental press, the helmet unfolded into what looked to be an armored hood. With the push of another button, it turned back into the large ring.
With how slowly everyone else was still changing, (Izuku didn't know why they changed so slowly, or if he had just gotten used to changing quickly to avoid Kaachan's friends), Izuku quietly crept out of the changing room, stepping into a dark room filled with wide-screens and two shaded silhouettes.
He could vaguely hear their hushed conversation as he approached. He had expected to see All Might there, what with him being their teacher, but he hadn't expected a similar suit of armor to his own costume. His dad was standing beside All Might, seemingly giving teaching advice of all things.
"-And remember, phrase it clearly, It'll be better to use the words 'Attackers' and 'Defenders' for now until you learn more about all your students."
"Would that be because of bullying issues? I'd hope that these young boys and girls would be above that sort of thing."
"Yeah, but for the most part, it's for those who have been bullied before. We can pick up this conversation later though, I heard the door open just now.."
The two adults turned their backs to the screens as Izuku walked up to them. He was carrying the ring in his hand as he approached.
"It seems you're early, Young Midoriya. Are the rest of the class still changing?"
"Y-yeah I think so. Iida-kun looked like he was struggling to figure out how to put his armor on."
"And what about your helmet, kiddo?" His father raised his own helmet, which he was holding under his arm like a basketball.
"Um.. about that, I don't think it'll fit over my hair." he was slightly sheepish about that. It could probably fit, but he doubted it would be very comfortable.
"Well, you could leave it as a hood for now, and let it sit on your shoulders. Here, let me show you."
Izuku followed Hisashi's guidance as he raised the ring onto his shoulders. Rotating it back and forth, he kept doing so until he felt the magnets clip into place, and for the locks to align. Pressing one of the buttons on the side, he felt the locks click into place. Upon locking the mask into place, it repositioned itself to rest squarely on his shoulders. He tried to put it in helmet form, but his assumption was right. It was incredibly uncomfortable. Clicking the button once more, it unfolded back into an armored hood.
"I guess this is the best I can do for now… it really doesn't fit with my hair. It feels… weird…." Izuku paused before looking up: "Anyways, why are you here Dad? Are you here for Hero work?"
"Yep, that, and I didn't want to miss my son's first hero costume!" he felt a hand ruffle his unruly hair, "We are going to have to get you to a barbershop though, but that can wait. In all honesty, I came to drop off a report to Nezu. Thought I might stop here on the way."
"Wh- you shouldn't keep Nezu waiting!" surprisingly, it was All Might who said that. He was slightly surprised that the Symbol of Peace found their principal to be intimidating. Nezu looked almost like a plushy in the recordings he saw on UA's website.
"Ahh I know my priorities," Hisashi brushed it off as he started to walk to the door, "I only know a little about what you're gonna be doing today, so whoever you get matched up against Izuku, show them what we taught you. Give 'em hell, kiddo."
"I will Dad!"
The door closed shut as the Vulcan left the testing ground.
"Who was that?" the voice almost gets Izuku to jump, and he sees All Might turn towards the changing rooms. Turning as well, Izuku spotted a small gathering of his classmates, as more slowly trickled out of the changing rooms.
"A friend of mine, as well as Young Midoriya's father." with a sweeping gesture, All Might looked over the class for a moment.
He heard a number of his classmates gasp. There was some muttering within the small group for a moment, as All Might watched the doors behind them.
All Might seemingly counted the attendance, watching as more students trickled into the room. "Now that everyone is here, let us begin today's Heroics Exercise, A TRIAL BY COMBAT!"
Izuku looked back towards the screens, which showed a familiar sight.
"This looks like the same field as the Entrance exam. Should I take it that we will be performing urban battles against robots again?"
"Close, but quite, Young Iida. Today, we'll be taking two steps forward instead." Stepping forward, All Might pressed a button on the control panel. "Thankfully, an associate of mine helped me create this ahead of time."
On the central screen, the footage cut abruptly, before being replaced with a bright red background, and the bordered words, "CAPTURE THE FLAG" appeared on the screen.
"Most villain fights televised for news stations happen outside. However, the most dangerous villains are the intelligent ones. Villains wo hide in the shadows." with the tap of another button, the screen changed once more.
"For today's lesson, you'll be split into teams of two. It will be Attackers vs Defenders for an Indoor battle!"
"What about basic training?" Asui-(call me Tsu) questioned. That was a good point. As far as Izuku knew, not everyone would have been trained.
"Worry not, Young Asui. There is a reason why we're doing this first instead of the basics of hand-to-hand, martial arts lessons or movement lessons. Today, your teachers will learn what you can do, and what you need to improve on. It's for that reason that you're competing against each other, and not just against robots."
His explanation was met with a sleuth of questions, some of which were not-so-related, on how the class would be handled. From what he could gather from the exercise, the day's classes were a one-sided game of Capture The Flag, with the flag in question being a paper-mache bomb. Teams of two would be either defending or attacking the bomb, which could be placed anywhere inside designated buildings.
For the attacking team, the victory conditions would be to either wrap and tie capture tape around all defenders or to place their hands on the replica bomb. Meanwhile, for defenders, their victory condition would be to withstand the full 15 minutes until the challenge was over. All Might didn't mention it, but Izuku assumed that there might be bonus points if both defenders endured to the time limit. He also couldn't help but wonder if it was possible to untie or rescue teammates. All Might never said they could, but he never said anything against it either.
Now it looked like they were selecting teams. Izuku couldn't help but wonder how that would be done. Or at least that was until All Might pulled a hat out of seemingly thin air. Did All Might know magic tricks? He shook his head, snapping back to attention.
It looked like his teammate was… Denki Kaminari..? Oh- the board updated in real-time with images of the student profiles. That would help him find his partner. Even with the introductions after the test yesterday, Izuku still didn't remember everyone's names off the top of his head.
"You're Midoriya, right? Cool, looks like we'll be teamed up for this match."
Looking to his left, Izuku saw the punk-themed electrification user.
With a nod, Izuku turns to face him. " I look f-forward to working together."
"By the way, nice armor. Looks like you put a whole lot of thought into making it."
"Y-yeah… My parents helped me with it, Mostly my dad though. Parts of this armor look like they were based on his costume…"
"Must be nice knowing how to make a costume. I tried to get something for my quirk, but all I could think of was this radio thing." Kaminari-san briefly took off his earpiece to show it to him.
However, before the two could get any further with their costume discussion, Izuku realized that match-ups had appeared on the board, as All Might's booming voice named the first battle's participants.
Whatever his response could have been, it quickly died in his throat as he stared at a photo on the screen. Red eyes seemed to glare back at him as Izuku slowly deflated.
"Katsuki Bakugou and Tenya Iida will be on the attacking team! Izuku Midoriya and Denki Kaminari will be on the defending team! Gentlemen, you will have fifteen minutes to plan your strategy and place the bomb, starting from when you open the building map."
He stared at the portrait, feeling both annoyed and disappointed, not realizing that he was being called until a hand started waving in his face.
"Dude, you good?" Kaminari asked as he backed off. He looked concerned, and a little bit confused.
"Y-yeah. Let's get to the exam site, we can strategize on the way." he tried to brush it off, but he had a nagging feeling that the day's class was going to be a nightmare.
"Alright, if you say so." Kaminari, thankfully, put that topic on hold for now, if only temporarily. They had to plan.
On the walk to the building for the test site, he learned the extent of Kaminari's quirk, and Izuku shared some details of his own capabilities. He was baffled at just how much capacity the blond had, much like how his teammate's jaw had dropped when he put the (fake) bomb on his shoulder to carry it.
From what Izuku knew of most lightning or electric-quirked heroes, their quirks' capacity only spanned between five-hundred thousand and seven-hundred-thousand. Meanwhile, his teammate's quirk was already at one million. If Kamnari got even a little bit of control over his quirk, Izuku could easily see him rising to the top hero ranks.
If the blond's embarrassed enthusiasm was anything to go by, Izuku had said that all out-loud, much to his own embarrassment. That said, Kaminari needed to limit his options to melee for now. The move that he told Izuku about seemed akin to a last resort. At least it looked like his teammate wouldn't struggle with close-quarters combat. All he had to do was add a little bit of electricity to each attack, enough to stun enemies and leave them vulnerable to following attacks.
Upon reaching the building, Izuku opened the map (which was being held by a robot standing outside the door), holding it between himself and his teammate, showing all the floors and the room layouts on each of them. The gears turned in his head as he looked at the electrification user.
"Kaminari-san, I have an idea."
*long exhale*
I am in no way good at flashbacks. I hope that will suffice for it though. Perhaps I should call the kidnapping incident "hydra" since it will probably keep rearing its ugly head.
What do you think about the changes to the costume? Or the mild lineup change?
I'm still contemplating whether or not to rearrange all the other fights too. Who would go with who I wonder…
I mentioned the butterfly effect in the description of this fic, so I should probably be doing my best to make good on it. I'll be changing a lot of small details in the timeline but the arcs will proceed mostly similar to canon. (i.e. canon events like the USJ and Hero Killer still happen, but there will be changes)
Also, how does one do father-son interactions? Because I have no clue if I'm writing Hisashi's and Izuku's interactions right or not.
Oh well. I guess I will improve as I go…
Next time:
Battle Trial. Fight!